Life is good at forty.
I woke up and suddenly realized – I’m in my forties.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Seriously though…I truly am at a loss on how this happened. I remember clear as day my mom’s fortieth birthday (my mom was mad at my dad because she thought he forgot…but he really had a surprise party planned for her that night at our friend’s house…then she felt really bad).
But I digress.
Aren’t all my parent’s friends still in their forties? I mean, that is how I remember them…how can it be that now the children are our parent’s age? Does anyone else think about this stuff? Time is truly a bizarre phenomenon. Wasn’t it just yesterday we were perming our hair and listening to Duran Duran on our boom boxes while our parents yelled at us to turn it down? Now we are the parents who are telling our kids to turn down the music…whatever it is they are listening too (I admit, I have no idea).
And I have a toddler in diapers…I can’t be forty. I was almost in high school when my mom turned forty. Holy Cow, it is official. Shane and I are going to be the “old” parents for Baby J. We are going to get mistaken for her grandparents at her high school graduation…I can see it now. Sorry Josie. I promise we will still try to be cool (however, I can’t promise that your father won’t embarrass the heck out of you…that is out of my control).
I have mixed emotions about my fourth decade. My husband just turned forty and so many of my friends already have or are getting ready to as well. That helps ease the pain a bit. I mean what if I was the only one out of all my friends and family who got older? Well, I’d be pretty darn bitter. But it does happen to us all…(for all you smug twenty-somethings with no stretch marks, laugh lines or nearsightedness…mark my words…IT WILL HAPPEN TO YOU).
On the flip side of stretch marks, wrinkles and gravity (is there really a flip side?), there is a sense of finally feeling settled. At least that is my experience so far (or maybe it’s the Prozac). For the first time in my life – I feel complete and content with where I am. My thirties were rather tumultuous – going through just about every life changing experience you can think of (moving to another state, adopting a child, getting a divorce, getting remarried, becoming a step-mom, moving to the country-well it is the country to me anyway-, having a baby and quitting my career…and you wonder why I’m on Prozac). So if my forties are boring, I am so ready. Bring it on.
But bi-focals and wrinkles aside, I am looking forward to this new chapter in my life. Ten years ago if you told me I’d be a stay-at-home mom of four living on a pecan orchard outside of town…I would have thought you were crazy…ten years ago I wasn’t even sure I was going to have kids, let alone four. And not having a career? No way in H-E-Double Hockey Sticks. Life is funny that way.
This was not the life I ordered…but you know what? It’s better than I ever could have imagined. Hello forties. I guess I am glad you are here.
(But you can skip the crow’s feet – that’d be just fine by me.)
Until next time,
Marnie Fernandez
Marnie Fernandez is an official kid-wrangler of four and professional laundress. When she’s not chasing kids, she is a blogger and a free-lance writer who writes about her misadventures of mommyhood in a blended family on the plains of Oklahoma.
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